Once upon a time, Facebook tried to acquire Snapchat (for the bargain price of $3 billion). That bid failed, and Facebook decided to create a competitive product of their own. That product arrived to marked prematurely today when Slingshot was seen briefly in the Apple App Store. Luckily for those curious about the next generation of social media, a few things were seen before the app was removed from the store.
Slingshot behaves very much like the already popular Snapchat: the modern day digital equivalent of “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” You take a photo or video and broadcast it out to your friends –if they want to see it, they need to send you something first (in return, but ahead of time… if that makes sense). Once they unlock your transmission, a button in the app lets them react to what you’ve sent.
Social media addicts love this spontaneous approach to sharing life’s little moments, others of us wonder just how many more ‘spur of the moment’ shots of their latest meal we can take.
Because this slip-up happened prior to the actual launch of the app, it isn’t known for certain whether we will also see Slingshot for Android.
Jillian Koskie is an experienced software developer, content writer, project manager and usability design expert. With over 17 years in these roles, Jillian has enjoyed applying her skill-set to assist clients and users across a wide variety of sectors including: legal, health, and financial services. Combining these professional opportunities with a love of technology, Jillian is pleased to contribute articles, opinions, and advice to numerous news outlets, websites, and publications.